It is 1636 – the height of the Thirty Years War. The Spanish armies swell out of the Artois region of the Netherlands, flooding into King Louis XIII’s France. The border village of Dax-en-roi stands in their way. The Chevalier de Roland rallies a valiant defence, but his household guard is no match for the invaders. There is only one survivor of the Spanish brutality: the lone heir to the Roland n... More >

Ruth Braams is at the Rijksmuseum researching the provenance of artworks looted by the Nazis, when an old woman barges in and demands the return of a painting by her 18th-century ancestor. Ruth discovers the picture has an eerie wartime history – and that the elderly Lydia is not the only claimant. So why did Hitler want this picture? Who was its obscure creator? Who are the figures in the paintin... More >

When Jim Nealon walks into Lizzie Flynn's shop and proposes that she help him make jigsaws, Lizzie agrees. She's about to turn 50, heading for her first hot flush. She could do with the distraction. Then Jim shows her the photographs he intends to use. Now the picture that was Lizzie's life is in the air, swirling around in a thousand pieces and threatening to fall. As she scrambles to put her lif... More >

When Alan Titchmarsh left school at 15 he found his spiritual home in the ancient greenhouses of the local nursery. He journeyed south to college and then to Kew Gardens where he encountered rare plants collected by Captain Cook. Then fate took a hand when he landed a job on BBC’s Nationwide as their gardening presenter. His childhood dream of inheriting the mantle of gardening god Percy Thrower w... More >

F or 50 years we’ve travelled the world with Alan Whicker. In this landmark new book the man who actually has been everywhere looks back at the vivid range of people and places that have intrigued, amused and surprised us. Now we are guided through his lifetime of encounters with the great, the good and the not so good. Whicker brings out the best in his subjects, whether dictators or film stars,... More >

Maya Lowe is one of the world’s biggest movie stars. Steve Watkins is her life-long friend. Both swear their relationship hasn’t changed since they shared a school desk. But can a friendship like theirs really survive a fame as great as Maya’s? Steve certainly thinks so. But amid the twists and turns of Maya’s public and private lives, the gulf between what Steve thinks and the reality gets ever w... More >

At midnight on 15 August, 1947, India left the British Empire. This defining moment of world history had been brought about by a handful of people: Jawaharlal Nehru, the fiery Indian prime minister; Mohammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the new nation of Pakistan; Mohandas Gandhi, the mystical figure who enthralled a nation; and Louis and Edwina Mountbatten, despatched to get Britain out of India. Within... More >

It’s cold in Dundee. But not as cold as the trail being left by a murderer – a trail so cold even the police don’t know it exists. And for investigative reporter Campbell McBride, a visit to Dundee starts a murder inquiry which not only puts his own life in danger but brings back ghosts to haunt him in the place he once called home.... More >

Deep in a Derbyshire cave, the skeleton of an11-year-old girl has lain undisturbed for 18 years. Its discovery brings to light the half-forgotten and horrifying rituals performed by a group of children in their chilling ‘Egyptian game’. But the game is by no means over.Technology adds a new dimension to the sinister manipulation practised by the group’s former leader, and primitive fear returns to... More >

The rural idyll of life in a remote Welsh valley has turned sour for the Cordiners. For David, life in the local police force is deathly dull after the exhilaration of working for the Met. For Tessa, the hostility of the local community is a daily torment. Then a young nurse is found dead at a nearby beauty spot, her corpse strewn with wild flowers in some sick ceremony. Caught up in the challenge... More >

As a catastrophic virus devastates the Scottish countryside, killing cattle and destroying lives, Detective Inspector Marjory Fleming finds herself at the stormy heart of a troubled, trapped community. Infected animals are burnt, but the all-pervasive stench of death develops a horrifying edge when human remains are dug up near the town of Kirkluce. A missing girl and a mysterious family's obsessi... More >

Ellie, an artist in her middle age, needs to live her life in a new way after the death of her husband. Feeling fearful but doing it anyway, she enrols on a garden course in Tuscany one spring. Here she begins relationships with fellow students Nerine – an eccentric character in her seventies – and the much younger Max. Through the teaching of Salvatore – the owner of an ancient palazzo – who runs... More >

The war, with its horrifying, endless slaughter on the Western Front, is the backdrop to this story of the conflicting demands of duty, loyalty and love. Dolly Weston, her husband reported missing, falls in love with a wounded army officer. To complicate things further, a deserter emerges, and unhealed wounds from a bitter past are reopened. And then there is 10-year-old Joshua, drawn into the wor... More >

Since an assignment in Cape Town ended in tragedy and regret, journalist Nadine Morgan has not returned to South Africa – until she hears the story of Jason Irving. Jason, an American student, was beaten to death at the height of the apartheid era. Years later, his killers have applied for amnesty and, filled with rage, Jason’s mother resolves to fight their pleas for forgiveness. Hoping to lose h... More >

An Inspector Montalbano Mystery Montalbano's gruesome discovery of a naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately sets him on a search for her killer. Among the suspects are her aging husband, a famous doctor; a shy admirer, now disappeared; an antiques-dealing lover from Bologna; and the victim's friend Anna, whose charms Montalbano cannot help but appreciate. But it is a mysterious, recl... More >